Recent obsession with the Volkswagen Golf GTI

Yup, been totally poisoned by this car lately and I have been doing tonnes of research on the car as well as check out some of the cars that have been offered at some of the dealers nearby. I am actually not even sure why I suddenly got hooked on this car but the fact that I keep seeing it more often on the road (perhaps I am just a little more observant nowadays) reminds me that I really like how sporty it looks as well as the amount of horsepower and crazy widgetry it has.

I guess it can be due to the test drive I went for last month at the FA Wagen outlet at Jalan 222 where I drove the Golf GTI Mk6 (just launched in Nov 2009) around and I fell absolutely in love with the car. The smooth handling and drive as well as the super quick DSG gearbox (the salesman kept on emphasising that the DSG gearbox changes gears faster than a Ferrari Enzo), the car totally blew me away. One of my favourite novelties about this new version (compared to the older Mk5), is the variable suspension setting, and by variable I mean the ability to switch from sports mode to comfort mode or set it in auto mode.

One of the key differences between the Mk5 and the Mk6 is the steering wheel, I prefer the newer more sportier look of the Mk6 steering wheel design compared to the Mk5.

Even with this obsession, I decided to go about and check the current prices of the 2nd hand market of the Golf GTI Mk5 and found quite a fair number of them on the market. Prices are still a little steep especially since when Naza Italia sold quite a bunch of Golf GTI Mk5 previously after the Tour De Langkawi at a lower price but price ranges are around in the RM150k-175k range depending on the year of the car (05, 07 and 08 models) and the mileage. I checked out a couple of our localforums and found several members there selling their cars there as well, prices are a lot more competitive compared to car dealers.

Anyway this car will still be a dream for me, still pretty much have other priorities I have to take care off (mainly paying for my wedding this year and buying furniture before moving into my new place) hence this car will not be a priority yet. At the moment, I heard there will be new models coming in soon from Volkswagen so who knows the price might drop even further.

p.s. I also heard that a couple of guys are waiting till end March for their Mk6 to be delivered as well

If you are looking for a 2nd hand Golf GTI Mk5, do contact me as I have a friend who is selling off his Mk5 (2007 model at 51k milleage) at a good and reasonable price.

Yah MK5 selling price around RM170k+ it was a little cheaper last year at around RM165k+

But the MK6 is SUPERB, definitely worth a buy over the MK5, MK5 is good but I wouldn't buy an old one due to the fact the DSG gearbox has some inherent problems (the 2 clutches are different sizes, so the small one will always burn out).

Honestly, as a new owner of the VW M6 Golf GTI, am terribly disappointed. I recommend obsessing but not actually taking that step to buy this car.

I’d recently purchased and am a new VW owner, M6 Golf GTI. I am experiencing gear box issues with this car. I had encountered this problem twice this week. What happened was that in the midst of driving, the safe mode kicked in, as a result the gear did not engage causing the speed of the car to remained stagnant. I could not even engage the reverse gear even when the car was stationary. Had to stop at the side of the road, turn off the engine and restart the car.

This morning (27/02) brought it over to the Service Centre for a check up and the mechanic said that their troubleshooting showed that its a sporadic problem hence they cannot escalate the issue to replace the gear box. So i was told to go back and if it happens again bring it back for them to test again. Its extremely dangerous if this happened while i was overtaking another vehicle.

Essentially the message I got from VW wearnes is that they will only take it seriously if this problem occurs again and they can test it as a permanent fault in the system or if I get into an accident in this car? Talk about great customer service and absolutely reassuring piece of vehicle.* Absolutely cringe with regret*

By the way, i would like to highlight that this car is less than 3 months old, just had its first 1000 km service on 10th Feb 2010.

Not recommending for anyone to buy this car….I honestly thought it was a to-die-for car…. Forget it, despite how great the handling is this car is missing the most important & basic thing, a gear box thats suppose to be key to support its performance! Advise – please, do look elsewhere, Audi, BMW, Volvo…..if you dont want to spend your weekends at the service centres. Just stay away from VWs for a while till they get their act together.